Stress from standardized tests has brought on physical complaints among children in a least one Perry County school. Newport Elementary School principal Michael Smith reported to the school board at its April 15 meeting that five children experienced nosebleeds during a recent week of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests (PSSAs).

Smith also reported that some children were “worked up to a point of nausea” and that there were frequent bathroom trips during the test. Smith had to serve as escort for those trips down the hall, since students are not allowed to leave the room alone during the testing period.

Other manifestations of test anxiety included “a very capable student” pounding on the desk and shouting “I am going to fail!”; a child refusing to work; and a child who slept through the tests.

Newport Elementary School pupils in grades three through five took six reading and math tests during four days in April. They took writing tests for three days in March.

Middle school students also took PSSAs in math, reading and writing but on a different schedule from the elementary school. Additionally, fourth- and eighth-graders took science PSSAs in April.

Smith told the board that overall, students worked hard but that ultimately the staff can’t control the outcomes of the tests. “When (a district) is so small, one student can make or break us on AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress).”

The PSSAs and the high school counterparts, Keystone Exams, are called “high-stakes tests” because of the major decisions riding on the scores. With enactment of the No Child Left Behind law in 2001, state tests for math and reading became the dominant measure through which public schools are evaluated as “low-performing” or “high-performing.”

Schools that don’t make AYP based on the test scores are placed in varying degrees of warning status. If the school’s improvement plans do not result in improved test scores, the final result can be a new staff or school closing. By 2014, all schools in the country are expected to reach reading and math proficiency for 100 percent of students.

In a phone interview, Smith said that over the years the increasing importance of standardized tests has prompted declining class time on subjects other than literacy and math.

Beginning next school year, teachers in all Pennsylvania schools also will be evaluated partially through student test scores. Smith said that such applications of the tests place a lot pressure on the performance of students on a single day.

He said another challenge for teachers is that the test dates change each year based on when Easter falls. Last year, more of the tests were in March than April, which meant at least two weeks less instructional time for the students before assessment.

Elsewhere in the state, the option to “opt out” of standardized tests has gained recent attention through a Carnegie Mellon professor. Kathy Newman chose not to have her 9-year-old son take the PSSAs and explained her decision in an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which went viral on social media.

Title 22 of Pennsylvania’s education regulations provides for parents to have their children excused from the assessments on religious grounds: “If upon inspection of State assessments parents or guardians find the assessment in conflict with their religious belief and wish their students to be excused from the assessment, the right of the parents or guardians will not be denied upon written request to the applicable school district superintendent, charter school chief executive officer or AVTS director.”

According to Tim Eller, press secretary for the state Department of Education, a limited number of parents have taken this path. In the 2011-12 school year, 259 students were opted-out of the math assessment, 260 students were opted-out of the reading assessment and 142 students were opted-out of the science assessment.

PDE has opt-out data only as far back as the 2007-08 school year, at which time 223 students were opted-out of the math assessment, 225 students were opted-out of the reading assessment, and 108 were opted-out of the science assessment.

In addition to test performance, a district’s AYP standing is measured by test participation, school attendance and graduation rates. “If enough students are opted out of the assessments, it could impact a school’s assessment participation target,” Eller said.